


Tragedy Divides Before Our Very Eyes

by tredecaphobia



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Aftermath, Episode Ardyn Prologue Spoilers, Fic inspired by art, Fratricide, Gen, Mourning, No beta we die like Ardyn, Spoilers Episode Ardyn, Spoilers FFXV, tragically and with no hope, warning: extreme sadness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 17:26:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18451226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tredecaphobia/pseuds/tredecaphobia
Summary: What happens in the Crystal chamber moments after the events ending Episode Ardyn Prologue.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by gras-arts on tumblr, and their exquisite work of Somnus holding Ardyn.

For some time, there was nothing but silence. In the absence of the hot, wet particles of the miasma dispersing in the air, the sea breeze slowly stirred life back into the Crystal room. It played with the garments of the two lifeless forms on the floor, lifting them to change the tableau ever so slightly. 

On the floor, the man’s eyes remained open, staring, his expression twisted in horror. His face was gaunter, more haggard, aged and lined than Gilgamesh could ever remember him, displaying the toll this final year had taken on him. For some time, Somnus had stood, betraying nothing as he looked down upon this. The sword that had bestowed that final, merciful blow remained clenched, steadfast, in his hand. With the same stalwart expression, he stepped forward, and then knelt. Softly, as if he hadn’t intended to, he released the hilt of his sword a few feet from them. And then, still on his hands and knees, he crawled the last few feet between them, like a child or a supplicant.  
His hands came up when he finally reached them, cupping the weathered face, still upturned. The blood that had splashed up onto his face from hemorrhaging arteries had cooled. The tears he’d shed (in pain? in shock? Somnus wasn’t sure) still streaked from his sightless eyes, still responding to electric impulses that hadn’t yet gone dead. On his lips, the blood was still wet, still viscous looking. Still warm. 

It was this final, infinitesimal detail that seemed to tip the scales. Gilgamesh watched Somnus’s face slowly transform. As if waking from a dream, a look of horror kindred to the one gracing his brother’s face slowly overtook his own passive expression. His fingers shook as he attempted to wipe away the lifeblood from his brother’s lips in a strangely tender gesture. Finding there was too much to clean away and only smearing it seemed to finally snap something within him. 

“O Gods!” It had been whispered and Gilgamesh wasn’t sure if he’d heard it at first. The tone of the utterance brought the hairs on his arms and cheeks standing at attention. “O Gods, no.” This, slightly louder, held all the agonized torment Gilgamesh had watched building in Somnus in the past few years. When his emotional control broke, it was like the power of a river crushing a dam.

The sobs started out slow, guttural. He gathered the wasted frame of his brother to him, one shaking hand clasping the back of his brother’s head, the other wrapped tightly around his brother’s ribs, lifting him to hold him against Somnus’s body. The small, whitely glowing body between them, still clutched in Ardyn’s arms, seemed only to mutely add its own horror to the situation.

“Ardyn.” When he finally said his brother’s name, he sounded disbelieving. When he said it again, there was a plea in it. “Ardyn.” From where he stood, Gilgamesh could see Somnus’s open eyes glistening, their grey becoming ethereal as they caught the setting sun and glowed. “No. No, no, no no no no no.” Slowly, he began to rock back and forth, his sobs becoming a keening. “O Gods- why? I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Ardyn, I’m sorry-!” 

It was too much. The sight of such naked, raw agony was like a knife in his throat. Gilgamesh finally bowed his head and turned.


	2. The things we ought to love the most

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tragedy that lasts for two thousand years. 
> 
> Or, did you ever wonder what was happening in that picture when Ardyn was getting crucified?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy (kind of) birthday, Ardyn. Everyone should know what happened to you. Seems really fitting your birthday fell so close to Easter this year.

The sun declined steadily while they stayed like that, in the tower, the shadows creeping slowly higher. A chill stole up into the Crystal room, signifying the beginning of the night, and the last ray of light disappeared below the ocean horizon. And then Ardyn’s body spasmed. 

It was a whole body movement, legs thrashing, and a huge breath taken into lungs that hadn’t breathed in hours. Gilgamesh was almost as surprised that Somnus hadn’t dropped his brother in shock as he was with this sudden development. Seeming to have forgotten where he was and what brought him to this point, Ardyn’s only understanding seemed to be the pain wracking his body, and that his beloved brother was holding him. His hands came up, clasping Somnus’s body, curled around his. 

“S-so…m” The sound was barely an utterance- more a collection of sounds garbled by blood and bodily fluids that had congealed in his throat. “Som…nus.”  
Somnus, who hadn’t dropped his brother in shock, who had pulled back his head to observe what was transpiring, began to weep. What had occurred to Gilgamesh as soon as he’d witnessed the strange resurrection finally seemed to reach Somnus. “No-.” Having had wept like a child a full hour before, it was said in a kind of soft wail. The tears resumed their course, seeming now a new sort of mourning and loss. He knew, as well as Gilgamesh, what had just transpired. 

“Is this to be my punishment? What has h-he done? To warrant this cruelty? Punish me, if you must, but him—but him—Gods why?”

The next few hours went by in an increasingly horrifying haze. 

In the back of a wagon, Somnus clutched his brother, dazed and unable to make sense of his surroundings. The blood that had stopped flowing hours before resumed, becoming darker in the night, like pitch. He asked “Som… why?” more than once. Each time, Somnus had no response. Occasionally, he sobbed, and Ardyn’s hands would reach up, as if in wonder, to try to clumsily brush away the falling tears. 

When they reached the ferry, Ardyn seemed to suddenly comprehend. He moaned, eyes rolling in terror. “S-som. Somnus.” Though still unable to coherently form a statement, some of his presence of mind seemed to return. But Somnus still held him as the small boat rocked on the choppy waves leading them to Angelgaard. 

The sun had risen when they reached the cave, the place long known as a prison. “No… no.” Still terrified, and still bemused, Ardyn seemed to know something terrible was about to transpire. “Som… please… no…” Somnus’s sobbing had abated, but tears still fell like comets from his eyes as he stood, holding his brother against him. It took little work for the younger man to undo the clasps and loose the clothing obscuring his brother’s torso, hands sliding deftly, almost automatically down each arm to slip off the gloves. 

Gilgamesh did not falter. When Somnus stopped, he cupped the back of Ardyn’s head. The cavern was so quiet, it was easy to hear Somnus’s whispered words of comfort, intended only for his brother. Binding the first cord was the hardest, as he watched Ardyn attempt to look around to see what was transpiring, Somnus hushing him, holding his head in place. 

“Don’t be afraid, brother. Don’t be afraid, I’m here. I’m here.” When Somnus’s voice broke, Gilgamesh hurried on. He knew, sooner or later, Somnus’s resolve would break. Casting the rope to the set of Guards on their right, he began quick work of Ardyn’s left wrist. What was going to happen next was going to hurt. No matter how immortal something was. The Captain of the Guard nodded to Gilgamesh when both were secure, his face grave and pale. A second before, Gilgamesh had known it was going to hurt- now he wondered who it would hurt worse for. 

It took more effort than he’d expected to separate Somnus from Ardyn. “No.” It had been muttered, almost inaudible, when Gilgamesh took Sommus by the shoulder. Gilgamesh realized Somnus’s will was finally broken. From the way he desperately held Ardyn, the general understood this was where Somnus, unthinkingly, had chosen to die. It wouldn’t be his choice to leave his brother. Gilgamesh returned the nod, ready for the next part to unfold. 

It was Somnus who screamed when they sank the first hook into Ardyn’s right hand. Looking for all the world as if he’d simply been stung by an insect, Ardyn rolled his head to observe what had been done. He didn’t weep. He didn’t even cry out when the second hook was thrust into his left hand. It was then that Gilgamesh took Somnus, bodily pulling him away from Ardyn. Perhaps unthinkingly, he strained against Gilgamesh’s grip as he watched the Guard foist Ardyn into the air. It was almost surreal, watching with what tenderness they held Ardyn’s body as he was raised. 

But still it was Somnus who begged when they slipped the third hook, with a deafening crunch, through Ardyn’s right shoulder. Gilgamesh started for the entrance, moving Somnus with an alacrity that still felt too slow. He couldn’t allow his king to witness the rest. Behind them, a breathy gasp and the sound of flesh rending to steel echoed, chasing them. A wail, thin, and the crunch of a hook going into his ribs. Somnus stood at the shore, clutching his head, staring out at the grey, foaming sea. No point seemed far enough to escape the sounds of his brother being drawn. By the time the noises finally stopped, Somnus was violently shaking. When the Guards emerged, the sun had risen and the sea had calmed. Through the overcast sky, a break in the clouds opened up, showing a colorless sky and sending a thin beam of light down onto the island. 

Behind them, far into the cave, began a long, ululating wail.


End file.
